Automatic chicken-separator.



I. L PLOUGHE.

AUTOMATIC` CHICKEN SEPARATOR.l

APPLICATION FILED Aue.7. 1914.

1,147,641 I Patented July 20, 1915.

2 sHEETs-sIIEnI. 4 l: 1 Ei l l @o Av/ O 2 Z/ P ,Igp 5'/ f ///I I f Effi-5- 16 E55- I T I. 1. PLouGHE. .AUTOMATIC CI- IICKEN SEPARATOR.

Patented July 20, 1915.

APPLICATION FILED AUGJ I9I4.

2 SHEETS-SHEET '2.

Witwen@ caLuMmA PMNoGnAPn c..wAsmN IsAAC J. rLoUGIIn, or PLAINVILLE, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC cHIcKEN-sEPAaATon.

Specification of Letters Patent.y

- Patented July 2o, 1915.

Application led August 7, 1914. Serial No. 855,664.

To all 'whom 'it may concern:

v Be it known that I, ISAAC J. PLOUGHE, a citizen of the United (States, residing at Plainville, in the county of Adams and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automaticv Chicken-Separators, of whichthe following is a specification. l

This inventionv relates to automatic chicken separators, and one of the principal objects of the invention is to provide a device of simple construction which can be connected to any character of. coop or inclosure and will count the chickens as they enter.

Another obj ect of the invention is to provide an automatically operated `door :for closing the entrance opening in a coop and to provide an automatic counter which will count the chickens as they pass into the coop and will admit only the number which the i device is set previously to accommodate.

Still another object of' the invention is to provide an automatically operated device of simple construction, which can be manufactured at low cost, front open portion of a coop of any character for admitting a certain'number of chickens and to then automatically close thel door to exclude the others, the device being de signed for useupon `an'independent series of coops or inclosures, given number has entered one coop, the door will close automatically and compel the chickens to go to the next adjacent coop and enter, and when the requirednumber has entered this coop, the door is matically closed, and so on throughout the series.

In raising poultry, care must be*` taken with young chicks that theyjdo not crowd together and suffocate. vA large coop for containing a great number of chickens is undesirable, and hence coops that will contain from any number 'up to one hundred are the most practical, while itis very desirable to have coops which will contain not more than ity to one hundred in order to avoid crowding and discomfort.-l

These and other objects maybe attained i by means of the construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in'which,

Figure 1 is a front elevation of an automatic chicken separator made in accordance with this invention and showing the stormv for attachment to thel so that when the 'Y to be autov door closed, Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 2 2 of Fig.7 1, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows, Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the same with the storm door and the protector casing removed to give a better view of the part of the counter and separator. Fig. A is a sectional view through a supporting cleat at the back of the vfront plate and showing the circular door held in its open or inoperative position by pins on the ratchet wheel. Fig.`

5 is a transverse sectional view of the gravity door, and Fig. 6 is a detail section and elevation oi the staple connection of the le- -ver and step and the pivoted button for holding the step in its uppermost position. j

The separator and the various partscomprising the same may be made of metal or` of wood., In the accompanying drawings,V

however, thepartls are made of bothy wood and metal, `and the numeral 1 indicates a back board to which vertical cleats 2 vand are secured at the outer edges of the board by means of screws 4e, saidscrews extending through` the metal face plate 5 and through the cleatsJ 2 and 3 and also through an inclined base cleat 6 and an upper-cleat 7, thus spacing the face plate 5 from the board 1 to providea chamber for the door hereinafter described. The board 1'is provided with a door opening A8 and the-front plate 5 is provided with a coincident, opening 9. As shown, these openings are rounded upon their upper sides and having converging sides 10 which are brought together at their lower ends sufliciently to admit one chicken at a timethrough the opening thus preventing crowding or injury to the chicken.

Ajvdoor step 11 is connectedgto -a lever 12 The lever 12 carries vat its free end a piv-v oted pawl 17, said pawl bein'gpivoted at 18 to the lever 12 and having its pointed end or nose projecting upwardly to engage the rack teeth 19- o a ratchetkwheel 20. The ratchet wheel 20 is mounted in an opening in the plate 5 and is -pivoted at 21 upon a bracket 22 secured by screws 23 to the front plate 5 and the base cleat 6L A spring brake 24 bears upon the face of the ratchet wheel 20 to prevent retrograde movement of the same.

Around the opening in which the ratchet wheel 20 is mounted are indicating numbers 24?. n the present instance, these numbers run from l to l0 and are indicated by the numerals 5, l0, l5, etc. It will be understood that the ratchet wheel shown has forty teeth thereon and that thel numerals are to indicate each movement of one tooth of the ratchet wheel by the operation of the step ll. Projecting radially from the ratchet wheel 2O is a pointer or finger 25, and projecting from the rear face of the ratchet wheel 20 in a plane at right angles to the linger 25 is a stop pin 26. Another pin 27 spaced from the pin 26 projects inward from the ratchet wheel 20, and the purpose of these pins will appear hereinafter.

A gravity door indicated generally by the numeral 28 comprises two disks of sheet metal secured closely together in the center by means of a pin 29 and the two members forming the door diverging from the central point outward toward the periphery thereof and between the two members at the periphery is secured a bead of leather 30 or other suitable soft and yielding material which will be practically noiseless in operation and which will not be liable to injure the little chicks by accident. rlhe door 28 being preferably concave upon the opposite side will reduce friction upon the side of the back board l and face plate 5 since no portion of the door excepting near the periphery will touch the same. An in-l clined cleat 6 -is provided with an offset portion 31 and a curved recess 32 immediately under the door opening 8.

For inclosing the ratchet wheel and other parts of the mechanism, a pivoted casing 33 is provided, said casing being pivoted upon a pin or screw 34 and adapted to swing down to cover the ratchet wheel and adjacent parts. A storm door 35 is also pivoted upon the pin or screw 34 and may be swung down to cover the door opening 9 whenever conditions require a complete closing of the entrance to the coop. rlhe door 35 is provided with a flange 36 which fits against the casing 33 while the opposite edge of the door 35 is provided with a stop or keeper 37.

The operation of the invention may be briefly described as follows: In order to set the device so as to admit any desired `number of chickens, the ratchet wheel 20 must be moved so that the finger 25 is adjacent to the number. 40 on the dial. l/Vhen in this position the two stop pins 26 and 27 are at their lowermost positions and the gravity door 28 will ride over the pins and run down the inclined cleat 6 and thus into the concave notch 32 to cover and close the door opening 8. The ratchet wheel then may be moved in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 4: so that the pointer 25 is in alinement with any number of chickens it is desired to admit to the coop. The door 28 having been already thrown back to the position shown in Fig. et will be held in this position by the pins 26 and 27 until they have passed around again to the numeral l0 when the finger 25 will be in the position shown in Fig. 3 and the door will roll down and close the opening 8. For instance, supposing that 25 chickens are deemed as many as should be admitted to the coop. The ratchet wheel 2O is set with finger 25 at 40 until the door 28 is thrown back in position after which the movement of the finger 25 to the numeral 25 on the dial would admit just 25 chickens, one after another, which would operate the step ll and the pawl 17 to move the ratchet wheel one tooth for each chicken until the linger 25 arrives at the numeral l0 or at rv the lower portion of the dial, as shown in Fig. 3, when the door 28 would roll down and close the doorway.

lt will be understood of course, that the ratchet wheel may be provided with a greater number of teeth if desired and that in this case a coop of larger capacity may be utilized and any number admitted which may be predetermined before the door is set.

From the foregoing it will be obvious that an automatic separator made in accordance with this invention can be manufactured at low cost, is reliable and efficient for its purpose, cannot readily get out of order, and

may be set for any required number of chickens in any desired size or capacity of coops. When it is desired to lock the step 1l against movement the button 16 is thrown into the position shown in Fig. l and when it is desired the storm door 35 may be closed thus rendering it impossible for any rodents or other animals to gain entrance to the coop;

Various changes may be made in the delil@ tails of construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:-

l. An automatic chicken separator for preventing an undue number of chickens entering a single coop, which comprises a frame, a circular door mounted in said frame, an inclined cleat on which said door is supported, said frame having a door opening, a step in front of said door opening, a pivoted lever to which said step is connected, a pawl pivoted to said lever, a ratchet wheel and means on said ratchet wheel for preventing the door from rolling down the cleat to close the doorway, said means ceasing to operate whena predetermined number of chickens have passed over the step.

2. In a device of the character described, the combination of a frame, a door in said frame, a door-way in said frame, said door comprising circular disks held together centrally by a pin, said disks iaring toward their periphery and provided with a leather tire or strip held between said disks at the periphery, an inclined cleat upon which said door is adapted to run, a ratchet wheel provided with stop pins for controlling action of the door, a step in front of said door opening, a lever to vwhich said step is connected, and a pawl connected to said lever for operating said ratchet wheel, and releasing said door.

3. In a device of the character described, a coop, a frame provided with a door opening, a step in front of said door opening, a pivoted lever to which said step is connected, a door of circular form mounted in the :trame and adapted to roll upon an inclined cleat, said cleat, a pawl connected to said Copies of this patent may be obtained for sition on said cleat.

.4a. In a chicken separator, the combination of a coop, a Iframe, said frame having a doorway therein, a lever pivoted to the frame, a step connected to said lever and disposed in front of said doorway, a pawl pivotedtothe lever, a ratchet wheel operated by said pawl when the chickens step one by one upon the door step prior to entering the coop, a gravity door a nger connected to said ratchet wheel, stop pins connected to said ratchet wheel and'adapted to hold said ydoor back against movement to cover the doorway, a cleat upon which said door is mounted to roll, and a casing for said ratchet wheel and pawl.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

' ISAAC J. PLOUGI-IE. Witnesses:

ALLEN B. Arens, DAVID R. SEELEY.

Washingtoln D. C.

ve cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of IPatents, A 

